Sunday, October 8, 2017
Big city, small city, old city; now no city?
This will be a short post, but I might not get the chance to post again for several days. I landed in Kunming, went to two smaller cities (Dali and Lijiang) with old/ancient towns that, at moments, make you think you walked through a legitimate time machine. Tomorrow I'm getting up early and going to Tiger Leaping Gorge, where I'll walk more than 20km over the course of 3 or so days, staying at guesthouses along the way. Wish me luck!
Friday, September 29, 2017
Bearings in China
A good start to this trip. Landed late at 10:30pm, much confusion and difficulty getting to my room in town, but made it there smiling at ~1:30am. First question I got asked, "have you eaten, you must be hungry."
First day was a trip to The Golden Temple, a lush and stunning hill on the outskirts of town studded with 1600's stone and woodwork from the Ming Dynasty. Very quiet, peaceful, almost otherworldly. After a pleasant morning and early afternoon there, I bused an hour or so to get downtown and got to see the heart of the Yunnan province. Looked like most other large cities with much thought going into efficiency, a little into style, and almost none into history. I got home at 8:30pm and started struggling to keep my eyes open. I'll chalk it up to jet-lag and go to sleep for 10 hours. Goodnight!
First day was a trip to The Golden Temple, a lush and stunning hill on the outskirts of town studded with 1600's stone and woodwork from the Ming Dynasty. Very quiet, peaceful, almost otherworldly. After a pleasant morning and early afternoon there, I bused an hour or so to get downtown and got to see the heart of the Yunnan province. Looked like most other large cities with much thought going into efficiency, a little into style, and almost none into history. I got home at 8:30pm and started struggling to keep my eyes open. I'll chalk it up to jet-lag and go to sleep for 10 hours. Goodnight!
Pre-departure discoveries
In my search for the cheapest way to get across the pacific ocean, I've discovered something quite odd. Plane ticket prices seem to go against intuition in a variety of respects. For example, when searching for "flights from SF to Hong Kong in October," I can find one for $250 that makes one stop in Shanghai. My intuition then tells me flying from SF to Shanghai must, necessarily, be cheaper, but when I change only one parameter so it's now "flights from SF to Shanghai in October" the lowest I can find is $290 and it makes a stop in Vancouver. Just to take it one step farther, I should look up how much a flight from Vancouver to Shanghai is in October (and find out where it stops along the way).
What a weird algorithm this must use. Yet, the thing to do mmustbe to find the $250 ticket going to anywhere that stops at where I really want to go before connecting.
What a weird algorithm this must use. Yet, the thing to do mmustbe to find the $250 ticket going to anywhere that stops at where I really want to go before connecting.
Monday, March 16, 2015
A Final Post... for now...
This will be my last post for a while. My wonderful time as a foreign English teacher has come to an end, for now. I'll be heading back to the US. I was able to spend the Chinese New Year's winter break traveling around Thailand and Cambodia, two very beautiful countries, and even in the middle of February sweltering hot! Many pictures on Flikr. The pictures suddenly stopped about halfway through my trip because my phone was stolen. An interesting story, but one best over talking; unfortunately I have no pictures of Ko Chang or Shen Zhen because of it, though I should be receiving some shortly. Of the things I've seen in my time abroad, I can undoubtedly say that Angkor Wat was by far the most impressive. The size, extent, and level of detail were unparalleled.
If I can imagine you're reading this because you're interested in some ideas that I've had this whole year abroad. I have found life and lifestyles on the other side of the pacific tremendously diverse. The two places I'm most familiar with, Miryang Korea and Taichung Taiwan, were more different from each other than any two places I've seen in the US, and I imagine more different than the US is to England or even France or Germany. Exposing my ignorance, I'm willing to surmise that many of the differences arise from Korea adopting Confucianism (sometime around 1700 CE according to my old co-worker) completely, and then laying over on top of it Modern Industrial Capitalism sometime more recently. The two don't seem to go together well which has seeming made the older generation (50+ or so) slightly ostracized (but still respected in traditional ways). My vague understanding of Taiwan is that it too adopted Confucianism but it kept around (or perhaps additionally adopted later) Taoism and Buddhism. As Modern Industrial Capitalism started to flourish in Taiwan, it seemed to do so while keeping pockets of all of its old traditions (which are seemingly seen as one tradition) alive and well within the city limits and almost daily life. I don't know how, but I fathom that this has to do with Korea's civil war being much longer and actually taking place on Korean soil. I am happy to be returning, I have lots of plans, not sure of the path to accomplish them, but traveling indeed has made uncertainty a little more familiar.
It’s great to be back, I hope to see every single one of you soon.
If I can imagine you're reading this because you're interested in some ideas that I've had this whole year abroad. I have found life and lifestyles on the other side of the pacific tremendously diverse. The two places I'm most familiar with, Miryang Korea and Taichung Taiwan, were more different from each other than any two places I've seen in the US, and I imagine more different than the US is to England or even France or Germany. Exposing my ignorance, I'm willing to surmise that many of the differences arise from Korea adopting Confucianism (sometime around 1700 CE according to my old co-worker) completely, and then laying over on top of it Modern Industrial Capitalism sometime more recently. The two don't seem to go together well which has seeming made the older generation (50+ or so) slightly ostracized (but still respected in traditional ways). My vague understanding of Taiwan is that it too adopted Confucianism but it kept around (or perhaps additionally adopted later) Taoism and Buddhism. As Modern Industrial Capitalism started to flourish in Taiwan, it seemed to do so while keeping pockets of all of its old traditions (which are seemingly seen as one tradition) alive and well within the city limits and almost daily life. I don't know how, but I fathom that this has to do with Korea's civil war being much longer and actually taking place on Korean soil. I am happy to be returning, I have lots of plans, not sure of the path to accomplish them, but traveling indeed has made uncertainty a little more familiar.
It’s great to be back, I hope to see every single one of you soon.
Friday, October 17, 2014
Long overdue post--Hong Kong and maybe a gym?
Ok, two months in Taiwan now, six months abroad. What's new? Last week I finally got an ARC (alien resident card), which allowed me to buy a new phone (and contract) this week. Hopefully a driver's license is in the pipe, we shall see when I get down to the Taiwanese "DMV."
I went to Hong Kong last weekend. Spectacular! I'm beginning to think that one of the most omnipresent and entirely unnoticed features of our lives is the terrain in which we live in. So many years in Santa Barbara kind of made me think that most places looked like Santa Barbara (with different plants, and amounts of snow, and other things that are on top of the earth). Korea's landscape, it's hills, were once, very poetically, described as green waves out on open ocean. Rising and falling in a constant size and rhythm. On my first bus ride in Taiwan from the airport down to Taichung I noticed that the land has sheer mountains rising up in the east; very large and with their own weather patterns. A long valley running below them, and then some hills that remind me of Santa Barbara's "Coastal Range" before gently descending down to the beach. Anyway, back to Hong Kong: Hong Kong is a series of very small to large islands, but unlike Korea's geological erosion, or Taiwan's fault line, Hong Kong looks like it was made by volcanoes. The islands, the rocks rise up out of the sea and then fall back down, even on the map, no line or pattern was apparent to me. I couchsurfed while I was there. A very nice gentleman named Patrick (小龍) hosted me. He had gotten back from a year long stint in Europe (mostly Ireland) 1 week before. I meet maybe 1-2 more people from Hong Kong while I was there--small sample size, anyway one of the most remarkable things I observed was happiness, even while their Special Administrative Region is in the midst of a struggle/fight for freedoms and significant self-rule, the people I met showed constant optimism, and a certain appreciation or respect for all facets life. I didn't see that as much in Korea, and don't feel it as strongly in Taiwan. Interesting. Stayed up until 1 on Sunday night/Monday morning, Left for the airport at 4:30 got back at ~1:00 and opted to just go straight to work. Finally got home that day at ~7:00 and slept gloriously. I have run out of space on Photobucket, all new pictures are going to Flikr here. One day I will transfer all of my pictures to flikr, but that might take a few hours. New link here: I won't have any long weekends until January's Chinese New Year, so it's local travel and money saving time now.
A funny tangent: one of my coworkers said I look like a Taiwanese singer, his name is 蕭敬騰. I disagree, but maybe it's as close as I'll ever get to a Taiwanese guy. Google Image his name if you're curious.
I went to a MMA gym last night, watched their "relaxed/technique-day Wednesday" workout, felt kinda random but enjoyed it, was invited back tonight to their "regular/intense workout." Did some punching, blocks, entrances, take-downs, chokes, and breaks--almost felt right at home. I didn't ask my partner how long he has been practicing, but I learned before the class that one guy has been working out for 1-2 months, and another (12-year old) guy has been working out for ~3 months. I'm grateful the attitude is to go fairly slow, especially nearing tap-outs. I think I'll check it out again on either Saturday or Tuesday; still don't know how much are dues, that will likely make it or break it.
And now off to bed for me, good morning or afternoon to you!
Old pictures: http://s635.photobucket.com/user/dcpetit/library/Taiwan
New pictures: www.flickr.com/dcpetit
I went to Hong Kong last weekend. Spectacular! I'm beginning to think that one of the most omnipresent and entirely unnoticed features of our lives is the terrain in which we live in. So many years in Santa Barbara kind of made me think that most places looked like Santa Barbara (with different plants, and amounts of snow, and other things that are on top of the earth). Korea's landscape, it's hills, were once, very poetically, described as green waves out on open ocean. Rising and falling in a constant size and rhythm. On my first bus ride in Taiwan from the airport down to Taichung I noticed that the land has sheer mountains rising up in the east; very large and with their own weather patterns. A long valley running below them, and then some hills that remind me of Santa Barbara's "Coastal Range" before gently descending down to the beach. Anyway, back to Hong Kong: Hong Kong is a series of very small to large islands, but unlike Korea's geological erosion, or Taiwan's fault line, Hong Kong looks like it was made by volcanoes. The islands, the rocks rise up out of the sea and then fall back down, even on the map, no line or pattern was apparent to me. I couchsurfed while I was there. A very nice gentleman named Patrick (小龍) hosted me. He had gotten back from a year long stint in Europe (mostly Ireland) 1 week before. I meet maybe 1-2 more people from Hong Kong while I was there--small sample size, anyway one of the most remarkable things I observed was happiness, even while their Special Administrative Region is in the midst of a struggle/fight for freedoms and significant self-rule, the people I met showed constant optimism, and a certain appreciation or respect for all facets life. I didn't see that as much in Korea, and don't feel it as strongly in Taiwan. Interesting. Stayed up until 1 on Sunday night/Monday morning, Left for the airport at 4:30 got back at ~1:00 and opted to just go straight to work. Finally got home that day at ~7:00 and slept gloriously. I have run out of space on Photobucket, all new pictures are going to Flikr here. One day I will transfer all of my pictures to flikr, but that might take a few hours. New link here: I won't have any long weekends until January's Chinese New Year, so it's local travel and money saving time now.
A funny tangent: one of my coworkers said I look like a Taiwanese singer, his name is 蕭敬騰. I disagree, but maybe it's as close as I'll ever get to a Taiwanese guy. Google Image his name if you're curious.
I went to a MMA gym last night, watched their "relaxed/technique-day Wednesday" workout, felt kinda random but enjoyed it, was invited back tonight to their "regular/intense workout." Did some punching, blocks, entrances, take-downs, chokes, and breaks--almost felt right at home. I didn't ask my partner how long he has been practicing, but I learned before the class that one guy has been working out for 1-2 months, and another (12-year old) guy has been working out for ~3 months. I'm grateful the attitude is to go fairly slow, especially nearing tap-outs. I think I'll check it out again on either Saturday or Tuesday; still don't know how much are dues, that will likely make it or break it.
And now off to bed for me, good morning or afternoon to you!
Old pictures: http://s635.photobucket.com/user/dcpetit/library/Taiwan
New pictures: www.flickr.com/dcpetit
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